Fluoride battery has potential to hold ten times more energy than lithium battery

Few things hold as much potential to change a wide variety of devices for the better than the battery. Batteries with higher power capacity will allow for gadgets like notebooks and smartphones to operate longer away from an outlet. Higher power densities will allow a longer driving range for electric cars as well.

Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have made a battery breakthrough that promises to increase energy capacity significantly.

The researchers developed a new concept for rechargeable battery that needs no lithium and can hold many times more energy inside than existing batteries. The new battery concept uses fluoride and is based on a fluoride shuttle that transfers anions between electrodes. Since the battery doesn't need lithium, they are also safer.

The concept was presented in the Journal of Materials Chemistry by Dr. Maximilian Fichtner and Dr. Munnangi Anji Reddy.

The new concept can be used in batteries in two ways. They metal fluorides can be applied as a conversion material in a lithium-ion battery and can be used to create batteries needing no lithium at all. The lithium-free batteries can store more energy at a lower weight using a fluoride containing electrolyte. In that form of battery the fluoride anion takes over charge transfer from the lithium cation.

Dr. Fichtner said, "As several electrons per metal atom can be transferred, this concept allows to reach extraordinarily high energy densities – up to ten times as high as those of conventional lithium-ion batteries."

The researchers are tweaking the design right now to work on further development and architecture. The goal is to improve the initial capacity and cyclic stability of the fluoride-ion battery.

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